Letter to Joshua - Exodus 17

Dear Joshua,

You were one of the people who would have been around Moses in the desert. Were you somebody complaining to him about the lack of water or not?

To me as I read this Moses seems an increasingly hard leader. Yes, he is effective but, at times, he also seems to be lacking in basic humanity.

I am guessing the people were grumbling because they were genuinely suffering as a result of thirst. They were I guess scared about where the next drink was coming from and whether there were more of them going to die in agony than would have done under the harsh conditions of slavery.

You seem to be a trusted military leader in your community. Were you part of a counsel of advisors Moses had or did he act effectively as a dictator with God as his counsel?

I wonder what state your community were in prior to the attack. Had the lack of water weakened them in a way which was clear to others, was that why you were attacked? Or was it that as people grumbled there was rebellion in the air and discipline was breaking down? Alternatively it might just have been you were in a vulnerable geographical position at that time? Had the issues around water caused that?

I ask because there is so much the bible doesn’t tell us. The more I read the more I realise that we read it often not only without emotion but without understanding the full context. The lack of understanding context comes not only through our lack of familiarity with either culture or time but also out of the text. I know this could be because this is a retrospective writing of history, coming from oral history but I think increasingly it is because we are meant to accept some of the horrors without asking questions. We are simply meant to accept that is the way it was just as the neo-liberal consensus today and the press which contribute to it give us the dominant narratives in soundbites we are simply meant to accept at face value.

You were clearly a warrior, a military leader. I wonder about the anger you felt as you saw your men as well as the Amalekites slaughtered. It says that at one point in the battle the Amalekites were winning, that must have led to casualties. Is that why after the battle had been won you are told by the Lord he will totally destroy the Amalekites or was it to reassure you that this was not round one of something which would continue to spiral?

I ask because I am horrified by the Lord, after the battle, apparently sanctioning another genocide as a result. I know that the lack of context I talked about earlier may be coming into play here but through my modern eyes this sickens me and makes me question God.

Whilst I worship a god of justice I do not worship a god of genocide. In the world I live in god(s) are being used by other groups to justify this and we rightfully think it is terrible. Yet at the same time we are sending bombers in to deal with this by dropping bombs which must be impacting and killing members of those community too. It seems in seeking to wipe out an ideology and a problem we may be seeking to do what I find it so problematic God was doing. We say we want to wipe out members of an evil organisation whilst you wanted to wipe out members of an invading tribe.

I hope and pray that we will find a different answer and a different way to stop dangerous ideologies who are committing atrocious violence against other. I hope and pray we find a way to respond to violence and attack with something which does not involve more violence and death. And I hold on to that because if my faith is anything it is a faith based on hope….resurrection hope.